No, not my opinion, for I know nothing of Rugby Union – or of Rugby of any flavour, come to that. But in pursuit of Cuprum‘s vehement assertions, I have diligently perused the Australian media and distilled their informed views – which include the hindsight realisations of both the Wallabies captain and coach – into my headline.
Rather than attempting to understand the finer points of the articles and to précis their wisdom – a course of action that would be highly unwise for a Rugby rabbit – I present my evidence as links –
- Wallabies reeling after shock loss to Ireland – Brisbane Times
- Disciplined Ireland beat Wallabies – Fox Sports
- Wallabies Rugby World Cup dream hits massive pothole – The Australian
- Deans concedes Wallabies were outplayed – ABC
- Ireland digs deep to stun Wallabies – ABC
- Ireland haved knocked the arrogance out of Tri Nations teams, say All Blacks – Brisbane Times
So whichever way you look at it – sorry Cuprum, but you were wrong. In spades.
We was wubbish! 😥
Boadicea's Chariot 
Cuprum will say, the meeja are ‘light on knowledge’ about the game. 🙂
Just as important, Wales have just thumped Samoa!!
Janus – don’t try double-guessing Cuprum, he’s bigger and fitter than you. 😀
Backside would remind you that in his pomp he modelled for Desperate Dan. 🙂
To be honest they were both ‘wubbish’. Conditions didn’t help, we’ve known for a while that the Aussies don’t have a recognised quality kicker but for the Aussie scrum to continually collapse surprised.
What this result has unfortunately produced is north and south streams after the group stages, like this
1st semi
Winner Ireland / Wales
v
Winner England / France
2nd semi
Winner Boks / Wallabies
v
Winner All blacks / Argentina or Scotland
Unfortunate but we all know who to blame 😉
Soutie, So a North v South final is on the cards. D’ya fancy a punt on Ireland v All Blacks? 🙂
To be honest I don’t know enough about 6 nations rugby to have the foggiest idea who might make the final. As I was compiling the permutation I was thinking another Boks v England final 😉
France could of course upset the applecart on Saturday, (24th, 8:30 gmt)
Ordinarily, out of complete boredom, I would steer clear of posts about rugby. As this one is denigrating the “sport” I think I have a right to make a forward pass.
Bearsy, I have no intention of clicking any of the links in your article, all I can say is that the title of your post sums up rugby succinctly.
Beasry, anything Australia can do, England can do better. Or perhaps I should say worse. What a dreadful effort by the former World and current 6 Nations champions. The scoreline, 41 -10 to England in no way reflects the relative performances of the two teams. Georgia played with guts, determination and skill, only let down by a lack of experience. England played like a bunch of amateurs. Still, a win is a win.
TR, I am going to ignore your blasphemy.
TR – I’ve often wished for a “Like Button” on comments … Loved yours! 🙂
I’ve seen that on other wordpress blogs, Boadicea, so they can be added from the dashboard.
Not in this template they can’t.
After this weekend, I still cannot see anyone but the Boks or the All Blacks winning the cup!
As regards the title of the blog, I suggest you compare the average TV interview of a Rugby player with that of a Soccer player. Then I think you will find who the “Embarrassing, unintelligent rabble” really are 🙂
Sipu,,
Did you miss Wales playing the Boks? 🙂
No Toc, I saw that. For me, the best game so far. Wales, I felt was very unlucky to lose. I am not talking about the questionable penalty decision, but generally, Wales was the better team, or at least played better. I was one of the few Welsh supporters at the pub, not that anybody minded. For the record, my priorities regarding the championship are as follows. England to win, failing that anyone but New Zealand, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, South Africa, France. I am not anti-New Zealand per se, it is just that they tend to dominate world rugby and I think their players look very attractive wearing a choker.
The Canada France game was enjoyable. The minnows are growing in stature.
Hi Soutie.
To borrow from Lloyd Bridges in ‘Airplane’ – it looks like I picked a bad time to stop blogging. So I won’t. Still not posting my own blogs but I really, really have to comment on the ongoing RWC, given that am putting in the hours living it.
Up at 4.30 am for the latest instalments and delighted that Wales got through against Samoa. Still worry that Fiji might hurt them for their failure to beat the Bokke which they should have done, in my opinion, and with all due respect to you.
Still, never mind. Onwards and upwards for the mighty Bokke.
Slightly unimpressed by England and have to admit that Kaplan had a superb game. Our commentators included Phil Vickery who was incandescent about the fact that JK had warned the Southrons so many times about their errors and was repeatedly shouting ‘No hands’; when Dylan Hartley chose to infringe yet again. I blame Martin Johnson.
Whatever, They are coming on to a game. I just hope that this will stand them in good stead when they play New Zealand in the quarter finals.
You may call me a dreamer, which you undoubtedly should. But, if we beat Argentina next weekend, the English could have cause to quake in their underpants. At any deciding game against the Auld Enemy, we would be so up for it and should have the bulk of the support.
A win for Jockland in such hypothetical circumstances would, of course, give the possibility of a Jock v Bokke final and I could die happy.
Provided we got there against you and won, Fall back position is that you get there and win. I could then die relatively not unhappy
Bearsy, g’day and apologies.
I was replying to Soutie at #5 and forgot that it was your post.
Thanks for the links. I’ve always been a fan of vituperation and there was a lot of that around on the threads.
Oz will not be that bad again, in my opinion, and there’s always the chance that the All Blacks will choose to choke in the quarter final rather than the semi or the final.
Evening JM, delighted to see you here.
As I said in my #7, I’m not knowledgeable on the 6 Nations teams, you are of course quite correct as to who will be the 4th team in the S Hemisphere stream after the pool games (so I went with the world rankings and seedings.)
Pool C is still there to be won or lost.
My semi final prediction was more a statement that the worlds 1,2 and 3 will be together, good news of course for supporters of the ‘lesser’ teams, time will tell.
Please forgive me, I have been on night shifts and so haven’t had a chance to catch up. I am about to sit down and watch the highlights of the england game as I went to bed at 5.30am this morning then I shall read the links and get back to you! 😀
In the meantime….I never said the Aussies weren’t rubbish, I was just lamenting the attitude and culture of northern hemisphere rugby! 😀
So far – Soutie’s comment #5, Sipu #9 ande FEEG #13 are my sentiments too.
Well done Wales, much improved discipline against the Samoans reaulting in a deserved victory. The Pacific Islands have really disappointed so far this tournament, real shame.
I confess that I am not a fan of Jonathan Kaplan. My biggest problem with him is that he takes far too long in setting the scrum. The delays between Touch-Pause-Engage are interminable! It is not fair on the front row. I am sure it must get them riled. Just bloody well get on with it. It is as if he wants them to bind early so that he can penalise them. The ref for the France Canada game was far quicker.
While I agree that most of the penalties conceded today were justified, he does seem to have a thing against England. Maybe the English players feel that he is out to get them and so make more errors when he is in charge. He has plenty of critics in this country as well.
Sipu, good evening.
Never been a fan of JK myself in the past but Vickery’s remarks were illuminating.
In sum, he said that in his time as Captain of England, he had total respect for Kaplan. He said that he was a referee who always made it clear at the start of the game exactly what he expected. He always explained his decisions and. above all. he always tried to let the players know how they were infringing and to give them time to desist before penalising them.
Alas only 7 minutes of highlites – lots of chat afterwards about England’s poor performance. Interestingly the try scorers are kiwis as was the chap who got sin binned. Seems I’m not the only pommie basher now……
Great French game, well done them and the Canadians for pputting up a good fight. I have to say it is very pleasing to see the minnows catching up with the big guns.
Still looking like the cup will be wearing a choker come the final whisltle!
JK is a professional referee who is consistent which is all one can ask. It is the team’s responsibility to ensure they know the ref’s attitude and preferences before the game and play to it. It a school boy error not to. That said, Steve Walsh is an ego-maniac who doesn’t deserve to wear the whistle!
Bearsy, I quote from the penultimate linked article:
“Ireland did very well to spoil our game”.
It sums up all that is wrong with the Northern Hemisphere (except Les Bleus of course, this week).
Having read your links I see nothing that contradicts my assertions, indeed, they confirm them! I said in my original blog the Aussie pack was poor and that Quade Cooper would let them down. “It doesn’t really matter what elements you put it down to, we came here to play and to win and we came second” said coach Deans. Exactly, the Aussies came to win, the Irish came to not lose! QED! 😀